Texas Begins Transporting Illegal Immigrants from Border to D.C.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Texas has begun carrying out Governor Greg Abbott’s plans to transport illegal immigrants who have been placed in the state by the federal government to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., according to a new report.
“In the last 24 hours, TDEM has dispatched buses to areas where communities have expressed concerns about the federal government dropping off migrants and has the capability to send as many as is necessary to fulfill the requests from mayors and county judges,” Seth Christensen, chief of media and communications for TDEM, told Fox News.
“From the [Rio Grande Valley] to Terrell County, a large majority of the communities that originally reached out for support through this operation have now said that the federal government has stopped dropping migrants in their towns since the governor’s announcement on Wednesday,” he added.
The state has sent an undisclosed number of buses to the communities, but Christensen said each bus “has the capacity and supplies necessary to carry up to 40 migrants.”
The state has a pool of up to 900 buses for the operation, Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said Wednesday, according to CNN.
Abbott said Wednesday that Texas would be sending willing illegal immigrants to Washington, D.C., by bus and plane in response to the Biden administration’s recent announcement that it will lift Title 42, a Trump-era public-health order that has allowed U.S. border officials to quickly expel migrant families to Mexico, next month.
“To help local officials whose communities are being overwhelmed by hordes of illegal immigrants who are being dropped off by the administration, Texas is providing charter buses to send these illegal immigrants who have been dropped off by the Biden Administration to Washington, D.C.,” Abbott said during a news conference.
The governor said Thursday during an appearance on Fox News that only illegal immigrants who volunteer to be transported to the Capitol would be taken there or it “would be kidnapping, even though it would be by a law enforcement agency.” The migrants must also show documentation from DHS to board a bus or flight, the governor’s office said.
“What better place for them to go to than the steps of the United States Capitol?” Abbott said. “They get to see the wonderful Capitol, but also get closer to the people who are making these policies that are allowing people to come to the border illegally.”
